News Analysis: Handling of missing rep issue does not bode well for new UA

It all started when Engineering junior Tobias Dengel decided to go to Czechoslovakia for the semester. Dengel is a third-year Undergraduate Assembly member, one of three students representing the Engineering School, and one of only three students who ran for that position last spring. Now he's gone, and the UA is left with only 23 attending members. But as it turns out, Dengel is not even a student and the UA has spent the last few weeks possibly breaking its own rules to keep him in student government. Dengel agreed last night to resign his post, but for a young UA administration trying to figure out how the process works, Dengel's absence has proven to be a test, that many -- within the UA and outside -- say the UA has failed. "If things continue on this road, this is the beginning of the end of proper representation at this University," UA Steering Committee member You-Lee Kim said Monday. If a matter as relatively minor as the status of one representative can tear the UA apart, there is no telling what will happen when members start to debate bigger issues like the diversity on the Walk report or ROTC. Already UA members have concentrated on this issue while letting diversity on the Walk fall by the wayside. Until Dengel let the UA back out of the corner last night, the issue promised to continue, with more UA time spent on this internal matter while the rest of the University waited to hear what members think about issues outside the family. · In an emergency meeting Monday night, the UA decided to allow Dengel to vote by proxy through his friend, Engineering junior Eric Spence. Spence, who did not run for a seat on the UA last spring, was supposed to call Czechoslovakia before every meeting to find out how Dengel would vote on the issues up for debate. However, there is no mention of a proxy vote in the UA's constitution. UA Chairperson Mitch Winston interpreted the by-laws to allow for the proxy, a privilege the 17-year-old constitution gives to the student government head. But the UA's decision may have broken other articles of its constitution. But Janet Ansert, an assistant to the University registrar, said yesterday that Dengel is on a leave of absence, and is therefore "not a full-time undergraduate at the University." Ansert also said the registrar's office is the definitive source on student status. This means that the UA voted to keep a representative who is not enrolled at the University on the UA. The by-laws also state that if there is no next-highest vote-getter from the last election, as in Dengel's case, the NEC "will conduct a special election to fill the vacant seat." The UA side-stepped that rule Monday night. During the debate over Dengel's status on the UA, many advocates said that because Dengel has done a lot for the UA, he deserves to be on it next semester. Others countered that these people are missing the point and that they should fulfill their responsibility to the students, not to each other. So this is how the new UA has spent much of its time since their campaigns last spring: Day 1 of deciding Dengel's case: September 6. UA Chairperson Mitch Winston stopped debate over Dengel, saying UA by-laws state that a student's removal from the assembly will only be discussed after one-third of the members sign a petition. Day 2: September 22. At the second UA meeting on Sunday, College sophomore Jo Jo Graves presented a petition signed by 11 UA members asking the UA to ask Dengel to resign his position. Winston interpreted UA by-laws to say that the petition can only be discussed in a special meeting after Dengel has been informed, and arranged an emergency meeting for Monday night. As it turns out, the by-laws do not state that. The constitution does not say the UA must inform people they are the topic of debate. It does say, however, that a meeting is to be held "no sooner than five academic days and not later than 10 school days" after the UA receives the petition. By holding the meeting on Monday, only one day after the petition, the UA broke its constitution yet again. The members, who wanted to save time in order to make a Nominations and Elections Committee deadline, could have voted at Sunday night's meeting with the same effect. Later that night, UA Secretary Beth Azia called Dengel in Czechoslovakia to find out if he would resign his position if the UA asked him to. Dengel refused, prompting a new petition to kick him out of the assembly. Meanwhile, the NEC's deadline for organizing freshman elections was rapidly approaching. If Dengel had been thrown off the assembly, the NEC would have added his position to the ballot in the first week of October. His resignation will allow the NEC to do this. Day 3: September 23. UA members met Monday night so they could make a decision in time for the NEC to complete pre-election arrangements. Several members came to the meeting with conflicting reports from various administrators on Dengel's status as a student at the University. Despite a written note from Ansert, UA members said Dengel's status is up for debate. So they debated. What finally came out of Monday's meeting was what Winston called a "compromise" solution, passed with a vote of 14 to five, with four abstentions. But letting Spence hold a proxy vote is not a compromise at all -- it is a move to allow Dengel to remain on the UA, giving his supporters what they wanted. The whole issue bodes badly for the new UA -- it not only shows that members do not know their own constitution, but it also indicates that their priorities are in the wrong places. Most important, the debate over Dengel has led to a rift in the UA, a bad sign within the first three weeks of the semester. UA Steering members left Monday's meeting angry at each other, and at UA members on the other side of the issue. "This is the most disgusting display of cronyism I have ever witnessed," Kim said after the meeting. "The UA has just voted to trash its constitution and that's all because some members of UA Steering do not even know the constitution." UA Secretary Beth Azia, who fought to keep Dengel on the assembly, said the people who want to kick Dengel off the UA are not being reasonable. "I think it's really a shame that people have to listen to themselves speak and are sitting there doubting the fact and not looking at the big picture," Azia said.

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